The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Ms X complained the Council failed to act on information she supplied and wrongly suspended her housing register application. This meant Ms X was unable to bid on alternative properties. The Council’s delay in verifying Ms X’s documents and in reactivating her housing application is fault. This fault has caused Ms X an injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X complained the Council failed to act on information she supplied and wrongly suspended her housing register application.
This meant Ms X was unable to bid on alternative properties. The Council has now reinstated Ms X’s application, but she complains the Council has not properly assessed her priority and she should have a higher banding.
Ms X also complains her current property is overcrowded and there is a problem with damp and mould which is affecting her family’s health and wellbeing.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended) We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended).
If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended).
How I considered this complaint
As part of the investigation, I have: considered the complaint and the documents provided by Ms X; made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
What I found
Housing allocations The Council uses a banding scheme from 1 to 4 to prioritise applications. Band 1 has the highest priority and Band 4 has the lowest priority. The scheme sets out the criteria for each band.
The Council’s housing allocations policy requires applicants to inform the Council of any changes in their circumstances which affect their housing application. This includes adding additional family members to their application and changes in their medical condition or disability.
What happened here Ms X applied to join the housing register in 2016. At that time Ms X had a young child and was expecting her second child. She told the Council her current property was overcrowded and the flat was damp.
In September 2021 Ms X submitted a change of circumstances form to add her partner, Mr Y to her application. The Council asked Ms X to provide proof of identity and two proofs of address for Mr Y.
The Council asked Ms X for the outstanding documents again in February 2022 and suspended her application. This meant Ms X could not bid on properties until the change in her circumstances had been processed and verified. In March 2022 Ms X provided a copy of Mr Y’s passport and a council tax bill confirming he now lived with Ms X.
Then in February 2023 Ms X provided the Council with a copy of a utility bill in Mr Y’s name for her address. The Council’s records show this was verified on 17 February 2023.
Ms X made a formal complaint to the Council in July 2023 as her application had not been updated and she could not bid on properties. Ms X complained she had submitted the documents the Council had requested in February 2023 but the Council had not yet verified them or activated her application.
The Council’s response apologised for the delay in dealing with her application. It noted that Ms X was in Band 3 and that her application had expired. The Council suggested Ms X log into her account where she would be asked to complete a Housing Options Assessment. Ms X would then need to bid on properties via the choice based letting system.
Ms X was unhappy with the Council’s response and asked for her complaint to be reviewed. She had submitted the requested documentation and been told there was a backlog of seven months and had been waiting since February 2023 for her documents to be verified. Ms X asked the Council to confirm why her account was suspended and how this could be resolved.
An internal email dated August 2023 confirmed Ms X’s suspension had been removed and her application activated.
The Council wrote to Ms X in September 2023 and upheld her complaint. It acknowledged Ms X’s application had been suspended even though she had submitted the relevant documentation. The Council confirmed Mr Y’s identification and proofs of address had now been assessed and the suspension on Ms X’s account was removed.
Ms X contacted the Council the following week as her account was still suspended and she could not bid for properties. The Council reiterated the suspension had been removed and suggested Ms X contact her housing officer.
Ms X remains dissatisfied and has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. She complains about the length of time taken to assess her documents and remove the suspension from her account. Ms X also complains about the level of priority she has on the housing register. Ms X is in Band 3 but believes that but for the suspension she would have been able to bid for properties and have moved up to Band 1.
Ms X also complains her current property is not suitable as there is insufficient natural light to her living room. The flat is also overcrowded and there is mould and damp which affects her family, in particular her eldest child’s health. She would like to be placed in Band 1 and move to a two-bedroom flat.
Since complaining to the Ombudsman Ms X has submitted a further change of circumstances form, requesting a medical assessment. The Council referred the case to its medical advisors to assess. They advised the Council there was no medical need for a move. They acknowledged the accommodation was not ideal but that the evidence supplied did not provide compelling indications for a change on medical grounds. In relation to the damp at the property, they advised the Council to refer this to environmental services to take appropriate action.
In response to my enquiries the Council says it has assessed Ms X as overcrowded and awarded Band 3 in line with its allocation policy.
The Council has confirmed Ms X’s application was suspended between 19 February 2022 and 26 September 2023. It apologises for the delay in Ms X’s application, which is says was due to an extreme demand for new applications and changes to applications and limited resources. The Council says it is currently clearing the backlog of applications and change in circumstances forms and has an action plan in place. This includes employing more staff resources, redesigning processes and customer information and IT changes.
Where an account is suspended as a result of submitting a change in circumstance form the applicant cannot bid on properties until the change has been processed and verified. The Council says Ms X has not missed out on any opportunities to move due to the delay in assessing her documents and removing the suspension on her account. It says all of the possible properties offered between January and November 2023 were older person dwellings or properties let under local letting schemes. Ms X would not have had the opportunity to bid on these properties.
Analysis The Council’s delay in assessing and verifying Ms X’s change of circumstances documents is fault. As the Council suspends the application when it is notified of a change it circumstances it is crucial that any documentation submitted is reviewed and verified in a timely way.
Ms X’s application was suspended and she was unable to bid on properties for over 18 months. I recognise this was in part due to a delay in Ms X providing proofs of Mr X’s identity and address. However, having received and verified the required documents in February 2023 the Council did not reactivate Ms X’s application for a further seven months. A delay of this nature is unacceptable and amounts to fault.
Although there is no evidence Ms X missed out on any opportunities to move during this seven-month period, she has experienced distress, frustration, and uncertainty as a result of her application being suspended for so long.
Ms X believes that but for the delay in reactivating her account her priority on the housing register would have increased to Band 1. However, there is no evidence to support this. The Council’s allocation scheme awards Band 1 priority to applicants who: have a statutory right of succession but the property is not suitable for their household; have to vacate their homes within six weeks due to a Compulsory Purchase Order or because their home requires major works; are under-occupying their accommodation; are statutorily over-crowded as defined by Part X of the Housing Act 1985; are discharged from hospital to accommodation which is unsuitable for their medical needs; and are discharged from the armed forces having sustained serious injury or illness.
There is no suggestion Ms X meets any of these criteria.
Ms X has requested a medical priority based on the impact of the property on her children’s health. Applicants with a medical need to move are placed in Band 2. The Council has considered this request and decided Ms X and her family do not have a medical need to move. This is a decision the Council is entitled to make.
In addition Ms X complains of mould and damp at her current property. The Council’s medical advisors have suggested the Council’s environmental services investigate this. I would expect the Council to follow up on this.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to: apologise to Ms X for the delay in verifying her documents and reactivating her housing application. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended.
pay Ms X £250 to recognise the distress, frustration, and uncertainty she experienced as a result of the Council’s delay in reactivating her housing application.
The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint and should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.
Final decision
The Council’s delay in verifying Ms X’s documents and in reactivating her housing application is fault. This fault has caused Ms X an injustice.
Investigator’s draft decision on behalf of the Ombudsman
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman